Activities
- Find directions for having students construct a
Concept Map of the characteristics of life here. Site includes a
grading rubric.
- Use the online "Characteristics of Life" matching
game.
- Demonstrate the characteristics of life with Flinn
Scientific's "Glue Monsters: Are They Alive?"
 activity.
- Online crossword puzzle for "The Study of Life."
- "The Study of Life" Wordsearch and Solution.
- NASA provides an entire unit
called "Astrobiology In Your Classroom" that investigates the requirements for
life on earth and the other planets. It includes black-line
masters for worksheets, overheads, and even a game.
- "Sewer Lice" is a Flinn demonstration
for "What Is Life?" to introduce some levity into
the classroom and to provide an opportunity to discuss the importance
of careful observations. One teacher from the NSTA
ListServe suggested using white or golden raisens to make
them harder for students to recognize.
- For middle school students try these Sponge Bob
Science worksheets, "Bikini Bottom Experiments" and "Controls and Variables" .
-
Show this
"Characteristics of Life"
 PowerPoint presentation.
- "The
Scientific Method" activity has students write a paper about
the scientific method and then use it to solve a problem.
Rubrics are included.
- A good
middle school activity for introducing controls and variables in an
experiment is "Identify
the Controls and Variables" with the Simpsons. Lisa
Smith from the NSTA Listserve has used the site to
create the worksheet "The Simpsons - Identifying the Controls and
Variables"
 .
Labs
- Introduce The Scientific Method
by hatching "dinosaur eggs" with this
experiment.
- Or introduce The Scientific Method
with this "Testing a Consumer
Product" lab.
- Explore
the characteristics of life with "Is Yeast
Alive?" Lab or with these teacher notes .
- NOVA lab for "Origins: How Life
Began" has students explore the
characteristics of life.
- Use the scientific method to "Save Fred" .
And here is another "Save Fred"
worksheet with good images, but has to be printed on office size paper.
- "The
Checks Lab" is a nature of science activity from ENSI.
Links
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Many metric system activities: